Minnesota students report better mental health, but screens cause sleep problems, isolation

NINA MOINI: We have new health data from the state about students across Minnesota. The 2025 Minnesota student survey shows that students are generally reporting better mental and physical health than they did when they took the survey last, which was back in 2022. But they were also asked about a new topic this time around, social media and screens. And that was where students reported a bigger struggle.

Here with some insight is University of Minnesota professor, Jodi Dworkin. She studies how technology shapes child development and helps parents navigate children's use of social media and screens. Welcome to the show, Professor.

JODI DWORKIN: Good afternoon. Good to be here with you. This is such an important topic. I really do appreciate your time. So looking at these survey results, I'm seeing four out of 10 high school juniors say they might be spending too much time on social media or that it's getting in the way of their schoolwork and maybe other responsibilities.

NINA MOINI: What do you think when you see that 4 out of 10, is that surprising to you?

JODI DWORKIN: Unfortunately, it's not surprising. So even though this is the first year we've collected this data as part of the Minnesota student survey, those findings are really similar to what we see nationally.

NINA MOINI: I actually thought it might be higher. I feel like everybody-- almost adults as well. Myself, it's really hard to get away from that technology. And so three years ago, if we think about that, 2022, coming out of the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, how do you think things may have changed for students with their relationships to screens since 2020?

JODI DWORKIN: Well, the pandemic really changed how all of us interact with technology. That's for teenagers and adults. We were all using it a lot more and using it in different ways. And parents talk a lot about giving their kids a phone sooner than they would have thought or letting them join social media sooner than they would have thought because of concerns about social isolation.

And so that really started young people on this path that you can't really turn back from. So once you start a young person with an Instagram account, parents weren't taking those away. So parents are really reporting that there were those big shifts happening.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. The people were looking for ways to connect even more at that time. But this is really, I think, a really big deal to this idea of students saying that their screen use is disrupting their sleep. More than half said that they're on their screens in the middle of the night every week. What do you know about screen time and what that does for teens and their sleep?

JODI DWORKIN: Well, we screen time can be really disruptive to sleep. We know the blue light of the screen disrupts sleep. We also when your phone is there, you are concerned you're going to miss out on something. It's the devices are designed to keep you scrolling. Young people's brains are really vulnerable to that. And so picking up that phone or hearing a notification will immediately get a young person to start scrolling, and it makes it hard to stop.

So during sleep, that means it's disrupting their development when they're not getting enough sleep. It means they're going to be more irritable. Their focus might not be as good. Their memory might not be as good. They're going to have a poor day at school. So it really has a trickle down effect that can be really harmful for many young people.

NINA MOINI: And then there was this study out last week from the Academy of Pediatrics that was looking at children who owned phones before the age of 12 and found they may have a higher risk for depression, obesity, and sleep issues, like we were talking about.

I mean, how difficult are those health outcomes for 12-year-olds? Before the age of 12, you were talking about people getting their kids this type of technology sooner in the last five years or so. But under 12 just sounds so young.

JODI DWORKIN: It is really young, and we see lots of reports of kids getting phones earlier and earlier. And so one of the big pieces of advice I always give parents is to delay. Delay as much as you can. And giving kids a phone doesn't mean giving them full access to the internet and social media. If you have a reason that you need to be able to get in touch with your child, maybe they're going home alone after school, for example, there's many ways to do that does not require giving your child a smartphone.

NINA MOINI: Do you have any advice for parents on how to approach that or how to frame that for the child in a way that's not like you're too young and your brain is still developing?

JODI DWORKIN: Well, I think delaying it as much as possible and being firm in those rules can be really helpful. The fact that we see in these data that young people report they're spending too much time on their phones and on social media suggests-- and we see this in our own studies too, that when we talk with young people, they're really clear that they need ways to better manage their device use, that they need ways to disconnect. They need ways to turn their devices off. And so parents are in a really good position to help young people learn to do that.

Another key way they can do that is by modeling that behavior. We talk a lot about teenage cell phone use, but we see similar results with parents who say they're distracted by their phone. It's disrupting their sleep. They're on their phones too much. And so when parents can model that behavior, whether it's no devices after a certain time of day, no devices in the bedroom, whatever those family rules are, that can also be a really helpful strategy.

NINA MOINI: Do you ever talk to people who have successfully, really successfully implemented something like that for their teen or for their child and seen results from that they can feel and see?

JODI DWORKIN: Absolutely, all the time. I think the thing with parenting in general is that sometimes, it works, and sometimes, it doesn't. So it may work. And then you see two steps back because there's this new app that came out that your child is interested in. But I think when you can set those rules before there's a problem, that can be really helpful. So before there's a problem with sleep, that you've set a device down after 10 o'clock time or 8 o'clock, whatever it is, that can be really helpful.

And having those conversations with your young person, to really understanding, from their perspective, OK, so tell me about this app. Tell me about what it does. Tell me about why you want to be on this app. Like help me understand that experience and then figure out, as a parent, here's what I'm concerned about. So how can we co-create these rules? How can we co-create this space where it's not interfering with your homework, with your sleep, with spending time with friends and family, in a way that's helpful for all of us.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And you're saying don't be afraid to have the conversation more than once. Thanks so much. Thanks so much for your time, Jodi. Really appreciate it.

JODI DWORKIN: Great. Thank you.

NINA MOINI: That was Jodi Dworkin, a professor in the Department of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota.